Red-letter day: Worm moon becomes a spooky blood moon this week
Show Caption
Hide Caption
How to see rare 'Blood Moon' Lunar Eclipse
On the night of March 13, 2025, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across most of the Americas, as well as parts of Europe and the UK, depending on the weather.
unbranded - Newsworthy
This week's full moon will come with a special treat – a total lunar eclipse, which will turn the moon a spooky blood red color.
While the eclipse will last from 1:47 a.m. EDT to 4:10 a.m. EDT Friday morning, March's full moon reaches peak illumination at 2:55 a.m. EDT on Friday, the Old Farmer's Almanac said.
But you don't have to wait until the middle of the night: The moon will still look nearly full when it appears above the eastern horizon late Thursday afternoon, even though the precise moment the moon is full is a few hours later.
A "blood moon" total lunar eclipse will occur late Thursday, astronomers say. Here's everything you need to know.
It will also look plenty big Wednesday and Friday nights. It looks especially vast to us when it's near the horizon because of the "moon illusion," when it looks larger there than it does when it's high in the sky.
The March full moon is known as the "worm" moon. Here's why:
Why is it called the worm moon?
For hundreds of years, people across the world, including Native Americans in the eastern and central U.S., named the months after nature's cues. Each full moon has its own name, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.
"The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon," the almanac said. "Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred."
According to NASA, the more southern tribes called this the worm moon after the earthworm casts that appeared as the ground thawed.
Total lunar eclipse 2025: What to know about this week's 'blood moon'
"It makes sense that only the southern tribes called this the worm moon," said NASA's Gordon Johnston in an online report. "When glaciers covered the northern part of North America they wiped out the native earthworms. After these glaciers melted about 12,000 years ago the more northern forests grew back without earthworms. Most of the earthworms in these areas are invasive species introduced from Europe and Asia."
Northern tribes had other names for March's full moon, including the the crow, crust, sap and sugar moon, NASA said.
What to know about our planet: Sign up for USA TODAY's Climate Point newsletter.
Or were they beetle larvae?
Yet another explanation: The worm moon name refers to a different sort of 'worm' – beetle larvae – which begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time of the year, the almanac said.
A "blood moon" total lunar eclipse will occur late Thursday, astronomers say. Here's everything you need to know.
According to the almanac, in the 1760s, Captain Jonathan Carver visited the Naudowessie (Dakota) and other Native American tribes and wrote that the name worm moon refers to a different sort of 'worm' − beetle larvae − which begin to emerge from the thawing bark of trees and other winter hideouts at this time.
What is a blood moon?
The blood moon is a trick of the light, when the typical whitish looking moon becomes red or ruddy brown. It happens during a total lunar eclipse when the moon is fully in Earth's shadow and a little bit of light from Earth's sunrises and sunsets falls on the surface of moon, making it appear red.
When is the next full moon?
The next full moon after the worm moon is the pink moon, which will peak April 12, 2025.
A "blood moon" total lunar eclipse will occur late Thursday, astronomers say. Here's everything you need to know.
The pink moon is named after the herb moss pink, also known as creeping phlox, moss phlox or mountain phlox. This is a plant native to the eastern United States that is one of the earliest widespread flowers of spring.
Contributing: Maria Francis, USA TODAY NETWORK; Jenna Prestininzi, Detroit Free Press
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Forbes
3 hours ago
- Forbes
Don't Miss This Weekend's Sky Show As The Moon Meets Regulus
The beautiful winter skies showing the moon, Venus, and Jupiter This weekend, a beautiful crescent moon will dominate the post-sunset evening sky. On Saturday, July 26, it will shine close to Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. Here's everything you need to know to see the crescent moon at its brilliant best this weekend. Where And When To Look Be outside shortly after sunset on Saturday and look toward the western horizon. The waxing crescent moon will be low in the sky but relatively easy to see. Just to its right — about two degrees away, or roughly the width of a finger held at arm's length — you'll find the bright, bluish star Regulus shining at magnitude 1.3. What You'll See The crescent moon is just 6%-lit, displaying Earthshine (sunlight reflected by Earth onto the lunar surface) on its dark limb. Regulus will shine steadily nearby. About 79 light-years from the solar system, Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation Leo, often called 'The Lion's Heart.' Saturday, July 26: Waxing Crescent Moon And Regulus Observing Tips Plan to observe soon after sunset because this conjunction will only last about 30–45 minutes before setting. Since both the moon and Regulus will stay low, so seek out a location with a clear and unobstructed view of the western sky. A rooftop, open park, or hilltop will give you the best chance to enjoy this close conjunction before the moon and Regulus set. You won't need any special equipment to enjoy this pairing, though binoculars will give you a great view of Earthshine on the moon. What's Next In The Night Sky Come back the next evening, on Sunday, July 27, and you'll see the crescent moon bulge a little as it approaches Mars. Overnight on July 29-30, the Delta Aquariid meteor shower will peak, offering a pre-dawn display of shooting stars. For exact timings, use a sunrise and sunset calculator for where you are, Stellarium Web for a sky chart and Night Sky Tonight: Visible Planets at Your Location for positions and rise/set times for planets. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.


New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
Hints of Life on Exoplanet Recede Even Further
In April, a team of scientists based at the University of Cambridge claimed that a planet orbiting a distant star bore a possible signature of life. The announcement kicked up a fierce debate among astronomers, with many skeptics arguing that the evidence was too ambiguous. Now a NASA-led team has made a new set of observations of the planet known as K2-18b, which lies 124 light-years from Earth. They have provided a clearer picture of the planet — confirming the presence of water, perhaps even as a liquid ocean. But the new observations have failed to confirm evidence for life. In the original study, the Cambridge team claimed that K2-18b appeared to have a gas in its atmosphere that on Earth is produced only by living things. The NASA study did not find strong evidence for that gas. What's more, the NASA team argues that even if the gas was on K2-18b, it might have formed through mere chemistry. What once seemed like a promising clue of life — a biosignature — might be a mirage. 'A key takeaway is that biosignatures are going to be hard, no matter what kind of planet we are talking about,' said Jacob Bean, an astronomer at Cornell University, who was not involved in the study. The NASA team, working with the leader of the Cambridge group, posted its new results online last week. The scientists have submitted the study to a scientific journal for publication. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
University of Iowa launches first-of-its-kind space probe
A space mission led by professors from the University of Iowa launched in California on Wednesday. The 'TRACERS Spacecraft' was in development for eight years. The university held a launch party for everyone to watch it take off into orbit Wednesday afternoon. 'It's the first of its size and kind that's ever been led by the University of Iowa.' said Associate Professor for the Department of Physics and Astrology Allison Jaynes. Space always seems far away, but for the University of Iowa it's within reach. The university's physics and astronomy department led a mission with NASA to send up Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, or TRACERS for short. The TRACERS work in a pair and help predict space weather. 'So, we have sort of a shield made of magnetic field around the Earth but some of that energy that comes from the sun in the form of a solar wind gets inside of that shield and we want to know when and where and how much energy gets in,' said Jaynes. Space weather may not seem like something that affects us on Earth, but it does have an impact on farmers. 'In Iowa specifically we use GPS-guided tractors to do all of our farming for example, and space weather can really mess up that signal, so we're hoping that with technology and missions like this we can better predict that space weather just like we predict terrestrial weather,' said Jaynes. Students worked alongside experts on the mission, and it was a learning experience for everyone. 'It was definitely intimidating at first but it's also very cool to see the behind-the -cenes of how the team structure works, how we're deciding the data comes down and the communication with NASA and all that, so I feel like I'm learning so much every week,' said graduate student Brendan Powers, who also worked on the space probes. The mission was successful. The TRACERS were let into orbit and the spaceship landed back on Earth in less than eight minutes. Jaynes described it as an 'ideal launch.' The satellites will orbit for about a year before they burn in the atmosphere. 027-David Miles speaks to a community gathering at the Space and Missile Technology Center, a museum commemorating historic rocket launches at Vandenberg. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword